


When We Were Young And Innocent

by runeofluna



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine, Naruto
Genre: Children being adorable, Fluff, Fluff with an impending sense of doom, Fluff without Plot, Friendship, Gen, Replacement Tag, Uchiha Itachi (mentioned) - Freeform, Uchiha Uzume (mentioned)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-20 03:00:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16547555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runeofluna/pseuds/runeofluna
Summary: ...we were still surrounded by shadows, but not all of us could see them.Aka sweet friendship between smol!Kako and smol!Sasuke with an impending sense of doom





	When We Were Young And Innocent

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wafflelate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflelate/gifts).
  * Inspired by [the dark fire will not avail you](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14871546) by [wafflelate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflelate/pseuds/wafflelate). 



“Sasuke, look at me!”

Sasuke heard Shikako’s giggling, which strangely enough seemed to come from above. This wouldn’t be strange if he had been anywhere else, they – like any child of the Leaf – played on trees often enough, but right now he was in the clan compound and there weren’t any trees nearby. He glanced around to find his best friend – Shikamaru hung out with them but _his_ best friend was Chouji, and it wasn’t _fair_ if his best friend didn’t think of him as best friend _back_ – only to blink before his jaw dropped.

“Where are- Shikako? Wha- how did you do that? That’s so cool! You have to teach me how to do that!”

Shikako was standing sideways on the wall of Uzume-ba’s house. She was standing sideways and he’d only ever seen real ninja, like actual graduated have-the-hitai-ate ninja do that. Shikako always seemed to know cool stuff like that, she’d just a couple weeks ago shown him how she could make explosions and that was also something only actual mission-taking ninja seemed to know. He would be jealous, except Shikako always seemed happy to show him how, probably because Shikamaru always called them troublesome, and didn’t the Nara heir understand just how great it was that he had a genius sibling who was actually around to spend time with him?

“Of course I’m going to teach you, silly, why would I skip class to come over and show you this if I wouldn’t?”

And that right there was why Shikako was his best friend ever. Sasuke couldn’t help but grin widely.

“See, this is called tree-walking – yeah, I know I’m on a building, you can do it on pretty much anything once you know how to do it but apparently you usually learn it on trees and the name stuck – and I saw one of my clanmates doing it and annoyed them until they taught me how.”

Aaaand that right there was proof that Shikako spent too much time with that blond idiot, annoying someone until they cracked was usually the prankster’s style.

“Of course annoying a Nara would make them teach you, they probably think that’s less _troublesome_. So what did you do, prank them?”

“Ehhh, kind of? I followed them around and kept poking them with a stick whenever they tried to take a nap until they got really annoyed. It was for a good cause though! This is supposed to be an advanced chakra control exercise, and it helps build your reserves too!”

Great, they were learning an advanced exercise! He knew he wasn’t quite as good at control as Shikako was – she could make eight different leaves stick to her and spin them around at once while he could only do five – but he was still much better than any of the other boys and even most of the girls. And this could even build his reserves, maybe if he practiced hard he could even beat the blond prankster, he could always beat Naruto in skill but it was still annoying that his reserves were smaller than the troublemaker. Also-

“Ooh, if it’s advanced, do you think Aniki would be impressed if I showed him?”

He really wanted to show off to Itachi. His brother was already a genin when he had been his age, but this was an advanced exercise, so maybe even Itachi might not have known it when he was seven. And even if Itachi had known it, pulling this off could still prove that he was good enough to be Itachi’s brother.

“He probably would be, although we should surprise him – so don’t get caught practicing! Besides, it’s good practice to have something up your sleeve for a ninja.”

He was now almost quivering with joy, he could surprise Itachi, that was near impossible, Shikako really was the best! He noticed that Shikako seemed a bit stiffer as she answered, but she was still standing sideways so she was probably tired. Actually, if she was tired already she might not be able to teach him today, and he wanted – no, needed – to learn this as soon as possible.

“Got it, I’ll keep it a secret, now teach me how! I have to know, Shikako, please?”

He tried his hardest to look like that one fawn from the Nara forest that Shikako always called adorable, he knew that Shikako didn’t go all fangirling over him but she usually found him doing the doe-eyes hilarious and crumbled quickly whenever he used it.

“Geez, Sasuke, you didn’t have to pull those out! See, it’s really simple in theory, all you have to do is concentrate chakra to your feet, so you can stick to the tree, kind of like how we stick leaves to our hands and arms. You have to be careful because if it’s too little you won’t stick, and if it’s too much then you’ll be blasted off the tree. Getting blasted off isn’t fun and is really loud, so be careful, especially since we’re keeping this a secret, ne?”

He couldn’t help but snicker as Shikako said blasted off, his best friend was way too fond of explosions and loud things for someone from such a lazy clan. He was actually a bit glad she wasn’t from his clan, because the ideas of what Shikako could have done with fire jutsus scared him a bit. It would be glorious chaos, sure, but he wasn’t sure Konoha would survive.

“It does sound pretty easy, I’m gonna try it out now! Or, wait, actually, let’s go to your place, they wouldn’t tell aniki what we’re practicing, right? I can’t practice here, aniki will know in a heartbeat!”

As soon as he spoke, he felt a slight foreboding as he saw the mischievous twinkle in Shikako’s eye. He knew that look – she always had the exact same look when she’d notice a prank Naruto was planning and got ready to enjoy the results.

“Sure, you can practice at the clan forest! Last one there is a rotten egg!” She chirped, just before poofing away with a replacement. He could hear her giggles from the other side of Uzume-ba’s house.

“Wha- that’s cheating! Shikako!” He argued – yes, argued, he didn’t whine, what are you talking about – before performing his own replacement in the direction of her snickering voice.

“We’re ninja, we’re supposed to cheat! If you’re not cheating you’re not trying hard enough, silly.”

He couldn’t quite help his scowl – and stop snickering, Shikako, this is a scowl not a pout, damn it – even as their hands kept moving quickly as they popped throughout the compound.

“Oh, you’re in for it. I get there first and you have to buy me tomatoes for a week!”

“You’re on, if I get home first you have to do my clan chores for me for a week instead! I hope you like feeding the deer, Sasuke.”

He blanched, before immediately arguing back, he couldn’t let her up the stakes like that.

“Those deer are evil, they only like you Nara! Are you trying to get me killed, Shikako? They’ll eat me alive!”

Shikako looked way too close to her clan’s patron animals for comfort right now, he sped up his hand seals in a desperate bid to avoid the horrible punishment – and that’s what it was, a punishment, they could only ever be classified as mere _chores_ by the Nara.

“Like I’d ever do that to you, Sasuke? Just what horrible things do you think of me? And please, they don’t kill, they’d only maim you at the very worst. You’ll survive, it’s what all Nara go through in life and we’re the lazy clan, remember? It’s you Uchiha that’s supposed to be all tough and mighty. Also, hi, Saukra-chan, Ino-chan!”

He whipped around in a panic – those two were tamer than most thanks to Shikako but they were still his fangirls, damn it – only to realize that Shikako had skipped kunoichi classes to come find him, they couldn’t be here, and-

“I win! Thanks in advance, Sasuke-kun, you know I love you!”

**Author's Note:**

> For NaNoWriMo! and also because the Dark Fire Universe is full of angst and we need some fluff XD


End file.
